My Giant Schnauzer Adventure"

Monthly Archives: December 2014

Bo gets to go Visiting for the First Time

Image of Boaz on play date

Yesterday, we took Bo for his first socialization outside our home – a Play Date with my sisters’s dogs. Beau did very well, just a little shy at first and then got along with everyone (people and dogs) fine. He and the little female played hard together and he was so tired, that when we left my sisters’ home and went to a friends house to borrow a larger pet carrier for us to use a Christmas for him, he slept at my feet and ignored that friends dogs. When we got home, he laid down in the living room with Mel and slept for 1.5 hours. Guess we finally found out what will tire him out. We made sure all the dogs were fine and had their shots before we went. Boaz was very calm and mild mannered on our visit and I was very proud of him. I iPhone was too full so I only got one pic of him with the little fluff ball doggie. The next time we visit, Bo will be twice the size of Matts.

Ouch! that can hurt little dog!

One thing that is for sure, puppies love to play and lick and bite on you. They do this with their siblings and canine mom a lot. However, their little teeth can be very sharp and feel like needles in your hands and arms, and feet. Normally, a puppy will learn what is called ‘bite inhibition” from its siblings and mother, however, when the puppy is removed from the litter early, (as in 7-8 weeks), he may not have had the opportunity to learn it before you picked him up. This was the case for our Boaz. Bo was between 7-8 weeks when we picked him up, so he was very young and had not learned to temper his bites.

So we are in the process of teaching him “bite inhibition” ourselves. Evidently he needs to learn this now or he could be too aggressive as an adult, not knowing to go “easy” on humans. This is a very time consuming process at this age, as he is also “teething” and wanting to chew on literally everything in sight. Continue reading →

Training Boaz to go Outside to Relieve Himself

The first order of business for us of course was to teach Boaz to relieve himself outside, not inside our home.

Unfortunately, this is proving to be quite a task. Both our home in Bella Vista and our home in White Hall have significant amounts of carpet (LR/BRS), so naturally I do not want Bo having accidents on the carpet.

At the Bella Vista house we put a paper down outside his crate in the hardwood laminate in the sunroom and he does try to urinate there. Its funny that sometimes he puts his front legs on the paper and lets go, but his rear end is off the paper. He’s trying, so we can’t really get onto him doing that but reposition him when we can. As a young, under 12 week puppy, he doesn’t have much bladder control for a while.

So I’ve been reading lots of my puppy training books and getting various tips on housebreaking. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. Continue reading →

Getting Acquainted with Boaz

Its Tuesday, December 9th and Boaz has joined our family and has lived with us for about 14 days now. Its been a true adventure for my husband and myself and my 87 year old MIL who lives with us.

Image of Boaz in Bella Vista sunroom

We spent our first few days with Bo in our vacation home in the Ozark Mountains while on Thanksgiving vacation. Bo has a crate set up in the sunroom of that home and we found out he was just a darling to play with when we were there. We began the process of housetraining him there also. He did manage to have a few mistakes in our home and in the crate (more about that later), but it was easy to clean up.

Unfortunately he developed some diarrhea which was no fun for he or us. Probably from the change of food, even though we began mixing some of his food from the breeder with the food we purchased for him – 50/50 – a handful of each, three times a day. We are feeding him morning, noon and evening. We are also putting the Nuvet vitamins the breeder recommended in his water bowl every day (1/2 of a tablet for now).

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